About the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP)

MCHP is a research unit within the Department of Community Health Sciences, in the Max Rady College of Medicine, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba, focusing on the question "What makes people healthy?"

We carry out population-based research on health services, population and public health, and the social determinants of health. Many factors affect health, such as health care, health programs and policies, income, education, employment and social circumstances. Our research helps Manitoba to maximize our healthcare dollars and to identify health and social policy tools we need for the future. We also research what will level the playing field between children from low- and high-income neighbourhoods, and northern and rural areas and urban areas.

We use de-identified data from administrative records of Manitobans (personal data collected for other purposes and stored by a variety of government departments). De-identified means that personal identifiers, such as names and addresses, are removed before the data are transferred to the Manitoba Population Research Data Repository (Repository) at MCHP, to protect everyone's privacy. Each record comes with a scrambled identifier which allows us to link each record in each of the different datasets. We adhere to strict privacy principles when these records are used in our research.

We are funded through five-year contracts with the Province of Manitoba (since 1991) to deliver five major research projects annually. These studies deal with health and social issues that can best be answered using data from the Repository. Topics for study are jointly decided upon by MCHP's Director and the Deputy Minister of Health. This agreement provides roughly half of our funding. The other half of our funding comes from provincial, national or international research-funding organizations.

THE STORY OF THE MANITOBA CENTRE FOR HEALTH POLICY

MCHP is rich with stories that punctuate its history. A qualitative study exploring the details of MCHP was written by Dr. Gail Marchessault to celebrate the founding of the Centre and the 20 years of research it has produced. This study explores the challenges and success of MCHP and includes insights from key people at Manitoba Health and the University of Manitoba, including the College of Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences and the Department of Community Health Sciences.